Opinion

Almanac for June 18, 2026

Today is Thursday, June 18, the 169th day of 2026. There are 196 days left in the year. Today in history: In 1812, the War of 1812 began as the United States Congress approved, and President James Madison signed, a declaration of war against Britain. Also on this date: In 1778, American forces entered Philadelphia as the British withdrew during the Revolutionary War. In 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated in the Battle of Waterloo as British and Prussian troops defeated the French Imperial Army in Belgium. In 1979, President Jimmy Carter and Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev ...

Editorial cartoon for June 18, 2026

Supporting local businesses

In a world that is guided by solidarity and programmed anatomic emotionless decision-making through A.I., online shopping and social platforms, walking into a small business can bring rays of color into one’s life. This is what I experience when I walk into Healthway Nutrition Store in Escanaba, U.P. Michigan. At first glance inside the small local business store, one’s olfactory senses fire up in the brain as the health store’s air is redolent of spices and welcoming ambient body heat. A sense of pathos is thick in the air, causing the brain to reconnect to the senses of being ...

Almanac for June 17, 2026

Today is Wednesday, June 17, the 168th day of 2026. There are 197 days left in the year. Today in history: In 1994, after leading police on a slow-speed chase on Southern California freeways, O.J. Simpson was arrested and charged with murder in the deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman. (Simpson was acquitted of the murders in a criminal trial in 1995, but held liable in a civil trial in 1997.) Also on this date: In 1775, the Revolutionary War Battle of Bunker Hill resulted in a costly victory for the British, who suffered heavy losses. In 1885, ...

Removal of Trump name from Kennedy Center a metaphor?

In what could be a metaphor for things to come, workers removed President Trump’s name from the Kennedy Center in Washington. U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled the rebranding of the Kennedy Center as the “Trump Kennedy Center” violated the law, writing, “Congress gave the ...

Trump signals swift return of Russian oil sanctions at G7

EVIAN-LES-BAINS, France (AP) — The United States could soon reimpose sanctions on Russian oil shipments after President Donald Trump and fellow leaders at the Group of Seven summit of major industrialized democracies moved Tuesday to put the war in Ukraine back on top of their agenda, more ...